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Grand Charity £30,000 relief for Haiti earthquake

Following the devastating earthquake which took place in Haiti in January, The Freemasons’ Grand Charity approved two emergency grants totalling £30,000 to the British Red Cross and Plan.

A dedicated Relief Chest was also opened by the Freemasons’ Grand Charity as a centrally administered service for both lodges and individual masons wishing to donate as part of a co-ordinated masonic response.

The 7.3-magnitude quake was Haiti's worst in two centuries. The epicentre was within 10 miles of the centre of the densely-populated capital, where around one million people live, of which more than 250,000 people are feared dead.

The British Red Cross has been awarded £20,000 to assist with their relief efforts. Red Cross volunteers in Haiti are currently assisting the injured and supporting hospitals which do not have enough capacity to deal with this emergency.

The most urgent needs at the time were search and rescue, field hospitals, emergency health, water purification, emergency shelter, logistics and telecommunications.

Plan was granted £10,000 in support of their efforts in dealing with the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Plan’s priorities were assisting children and their families and getting people into safe accommodation wherever possible, as well as working with survivors to help ease their psychological trauma.